Festivals and Partys all over the world • Penpal-Gate

hace 2 años

Hello there, I was born I Vietnam but live in the US now. I think you maybe more familiar with holidays in festivals in the US (it's Thanksgiving here when I am writing this), so I will share something about festivals and holidays in Vietnam then.

One thing you should know about my country is we use two kinds of calendar. One is the same one with other countries (Gregorian calendar), the other one is Vietnamese lunisolar calendar. Keep in mind that Vietnamese lunisolar calendar is a little bit different from Chinese lunisolar calendar, which may lead to different Lunar New Year day.

Put that aside, in Vietnam, there are 6 official public holidays, and we have at least 1 day off for those holidays.

New Year's Day on January 1st
Lunar New Year. This one depends on the lunisolar calendar I mentioned above. 1st day of first lunar month. Usually we have 7 days off for that holiday
Hung Kings Commemorations. 10th day of third lunar month. I will not go deep into history here, but Hung Kings are considered the first kings of Vietnam
Day of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification, or in short, just Reunification Day. April 30th. If you know about the Vietnam War, this is actually to celebrate the end of the war (April 30th 1975)
Labor Day or International Workers' Day. May 1st. Keep in mind right now Vietnam is a socialist country, that's why we celebrate that day. I don't know which part of Germany you are from, but if live in a place that was belong to East Germany before, chances are your grandparents or even your parents also used to celebrate that day
National Day. September 2nd

Also, there are a lot of other holidays here, which you may or may not have a day off or any activity, totally depends on your school, workplace, or even family. For example, even though Christmas is not an official public holiday in Vietnam, my old senior high school still let us have 2 days off on every December 24th and 25th. Reason? That school was located literally next to a Catholic church (the school is located somewhere else now), so there would be a lot of activities from the church that could distract us (nothing evil btw, just a lot of noise). So the school board decided better to just let us have 2 days off, even though the school is not a religious school.

Since writing about this suddenly makes me recall the memories when I was still in high school, let's talk about another day to celebrate. In Vietnam, every November 20th is Teachers' Day. So most school will have activities for that day. You know, singing, dancing, drama performance. Teachers and students of the school are the people have to do that of course. After all of those activities, depends on the school, you may have a day off for the rest of the day or continue with your classes.

Another holiday I think worth to mention is Mid Autumn Festival, full moon of 8th lunar month. I think it is somewhat similar to Thanksgiving in the US, it is to celebrate a successful harvest. The thing I want to mention here is how different each country celebrate it. In Vietnam, it is mostly a festival for children. You may see children celebrate the holiday with star lanterns (in Vietnamese language: Đèn ông sao), eating mooncakes. Generally speaking, it is not a big holiday or festival in Vietnam. However, in South Korea, Mid Autumn Festival, or Chuseok, I believe is one of the biggest holidays or festivals in South Korea. Also, on that day, Korean women may have to do a lot of things, so much that in recent years, I heard many of them want to abolish that festival.

I already wrote so long, so I will end it here. I hope you will find it useful. If you want to know more, feel free to ask me. I am looking for your replies soon kid.

P.S. I just realized you also asked how would I celebrate my birthday. Well, here's an answer may disappoint you: I don't. This is the only me thing. Reason? Usually, it's not my lucky day, I always run into something bad on that day. Friday the 13th, I am not scared of that. My own birthday? Pffff 😆